The Post-Season Has Begun, It’s Time For Enrique Hernández To Shine

On Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Cincinnati Reds, 8-4. With their second win in as many days, the defending champions put a quick end to the National League Wild Card Series. True to form, Enrique (Kiké) Hernández was in the middle of the action.

For the Reds, who made the playoffs on the last day of the season by virtue of having the tie-breaker over the Mets, they had to believe that once they got through the juggernaut that is the Dodgers first five hitters (Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, and Teoscar Hernández), they could take it a little easy. Alas, waiting in the six-hole was Tommy Edman, last year’s NLCS MVP; batting seventh was Andy Pages, who had a .774 OPS and 27 home runs this season; and then batting eighth was that man, Kiké. Kiké is always at his best when the lights are at their brightest.

On Tuesday night, he went 2-for-3 with a run scored while playing left field.

On Wednesday night, playing left field again, he went 2-for-5, with two runs scored and an RBI to boot. His double in the bottom of the fourth inning tied the game at two after Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up two runs in the top of the first. He came around to score the run that would give the dodgers a lead they would not relinquish when Miguel Rojas singled to right. After leading off the sixth with his fourth hit in two games, he came around to score on an Ohtani single to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 4-2.

Los Angeles re-signed Hernández to a one-year deal prior to the 2024 season, and then did the same thing prior to this season. At the time, president of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman, said: “Obviously the impact he has made in October on field, it was obvious…this past October [2024] may have been the most impressive displays of leadership I’ve ever seen. His connecting with different guys. Going out of his way on a number of different fronts was quite possibly the most impressive leadership I’ve ever seen.”

Heading into this year’s post-season, Hernández had played in 20 playoff series over nine years. In those 86 games, he has slashed .278/.353/.522, with 15 home runs and 120 total bases. And lest we forget it was Hernández’s smart base running and hard slide into third that kept that fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series going.

In addition, Hernández is one of the Swiss Army knives that Friedman and manager Dave Roberts like to have at their disposal. As previously stated, Kiké played left field in the Wild Card round, but he has also filled in at third base this (and other) seasons when Max Muncy was out with various injuries. He played terrific center field in the playoffs last year, including the World Series. The jokester has already gotten reps at first and second base, and thrown five innings over five different blowout games.

While Hernández had an off year by his standards — his third worst batting average at .203, and worst since 2016, his third worst OPS+ season (72), he was worth 0.1 bWAR — there is simply no doubt that the Dodgers will be relying on him as the leaves turn colors and begin to fall.

Los Angeles paid Hernández $4 million for 2024, and paid him $6.5 million this season. The dollars he earned way outpaced his WAR production for the year (but are pretty close over to the two-year period). But, those numbers matter very little in the post-season. Teams — especially the Dodgers, with all of the pressure heaped upon a team with a payroll of nearly $400 million — need to have players in the lineup that they can count on, for whom the moment is never too big.

And, in case reminders are needed, one look no further than Game 5 of last year’s National League Division Series, when Hernández homered to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead in a game they would win 2-0 (after a Teoscar Hernández homer). Or, how about Game 6 of the 2017 National League Championship Series against the Cubs, when Kiké hit three home runs into the Chicago night to help propel the Dodgers to the World Series against the Astros.

Los Angeles heads to Philadelphia to play the Phillies starting on Saturday. The Dodgers are actually favored (-125), but it will take all 26 players to beat a stacked group of veterans from Philly. And, in the end, it may take that one player, batting eighth and playing nearly every position on the field — the guy who loves Hollywood and loves being the star of the show — to push them to the LCS.